Zala'to

Zala'to
Gender	Male
Race	Miqo'te
Clan	Keeper
Citizenship	Ul'dahn
Age	36
Birthyear	6th Astral Era - 1543
Nameday	2nd Sun of the 4th Astral Moon
Occupation	- Former Pirate
Guardian	Menphina, the Lover
Alignment	Chaotic Good (Currently)

Appearance and Personality

A haggard looking Miqo’te man, often sporting dirty and dusted clothes and a rudimentary trimmed goatee. He carries with him what appears to be a rusty old scimitar, a travelling lantern and a shoulderbag containing various vials and bandages. His hair is a mix between white and blonde while his skin once appeared to be white but the rays of the Thanalan sun have since turned it into a more temperate sun-kissed light brown. Zala'to’s eyes are of a bright blue complexion which are easily distinguishable during the night.

Zala'to’s personality can often be described as extremely gentle. He is known as a person who often does the heavy lifting around the Golden Bazaar, especially now that the town is slowly collapsing due to the success of Drybone settlement. Zala'to often only asks the minimum in terms of compensation when it comes to fixing roofs and walls. He isn’t an engineer or a construction genius in any regard, but his experience over the years have made him at least somewhat competent. Other than that, he also can often be seen teaching children about the world beyond Thanalan. However, apart from his gentle personality, Zala'to is also known to have psychological issues, mostly with regards to anything having to do with large amounts of water. Though rare in Thanalan, massive rain downpours have seen him hide in a cellar, crying out in agony and tears.

6th Astral Era – 1543 to 1560 – The Shroud and it’s Mysteries

Being born as the first son in a traditional Keeper tribe, being male meant that Zala'to was often put through extreme physical trials. The Keeper Matriarch of the tribe wanted it to be known that ‘her’ tribe could produce the strongest men and this meant that from an early age, they were to be trained into perfect survivors. Being the Matriarch’s first son meant that that Zala'to would need to be -the- example for the tribe.

As Zala'to reached adolescence, his urges in a tribe filled with women eventually turned too great for him. The Matriarch spotted him being smitten with one of the own tribe’s daughters and thus swiftly cast him out to avoid inbreeding. After various twists and turns, including a chase by various Adders whose provisioning he had stolen, Zala'to ended up in Ul’dah as a young lad.

6th Astral Era – 1560 to 1572 – The Great Seas filled with Opportunity

Being physically fit from his years of harsh treatment, Zala'to was easily adopted into one of Ul’dah’s manual labour options of work, eventually settling on fishing for a year. During this time, he often took to the sea as well on a small fishing vessel belonging to fishermen in the Silver Bazaar. It wasn’t very exciting work, but it made Zala'to learn about the world outside of the Shroud in a non-hostile environment.

That is, until their fishing vessel was beset by two pirate ships who wanted ‘free’ fish and a couple of worker slaves. Over the next few days, Zala'to and his former fisherman colleagues were forced to fight each other on the deck of the main pirate ship to the death. Having nothing more than makeshift clubs and large wooden splinters, the results were obviously horrific and bloody. Various rounds later, Zala'to emerged victorious and the pirates had received a newfound respect for ‘the kitten’.

Obviously Zala'to knew that what he was doing was wrong in every way possible. But he couldn’t resist an entire crew of the ship and thus played along with their schemes. Making it worse for Zala'to’s conscience was that he was given two Seeker female slaves as a reward for his prowess. His youthful enthusiasm got the better of him and he couldn’t resist their scantily clad appearance: At this point, Zala'to also turned pirate.

In the years that followed, Zala'to managed to climb through the ranks of the pirates, eventually reaching the rank of Ensign just before the calamity. With his rank came an ever-increasing share of ‘the loot’, resulting in more gold and even more women. This vicious cycle caused Zala'to to no longer question his actions. He was as bad as the rest of them. The either ‘voluntarily’ or ‘involuntarily’ sessions with the ‘women’ resulted in at least ten children in twelve years.

7th Umbral Era – 0 to 1 – Downfall

During the calamity, Zala'to’s gang of pirates were located in the bay between Thanalan and Vylbrand and were hit by a massive tidal wave. The ships were completely destroyed along with most men and women. Several hours later, he washed upon the shore of Thanalan, near the Silver Bazaar which seemed to have withstood most of the calamity. Zala'to was severely injured and complications from an infection caused by splinters in his right arm meant that he drifted between dead and live for two months straight.

As he finally recovered, the sheer magnitude of the situation he found himself in became clear: He had lost everything at this point. His sons and daughters, his wives, his gold and his pride. Furthermore, the feeling of guilt towards the people of the Silver Bazaar and having to keep the events of years ago a secret to avoid reprisal weighed down heavily on his conscience. He fled and started drifting, even though his frail condition made this a foolish action to say the least.

7th Umbral Era – 1 to 7 – Guilt and Redemption

Zala'to didn’t make it far running into a random direction. He eventually passed out on a busy trade and refugee route. One trader decided to load him onto a card and dropped him off in the Golden Bazaar. The village, once a shining example of wealth, was slowly being abandoned in favour of Dyrbone settlement. However, not all the locals had the wealth to relocate which meant that most of the poorer families remained.

Zala'to was eventually taken in by the local innkeeper who gave him a job as a general ‘mister fixit’ around the village. The calamity had caused damage to several buildings and even though the village’s income was low, through some ingenuity, Zala'to managed to fix most of the buildings into a presentable state though in a very slow pace. It took years for Zala'to to get most of the strength in his arm back and even then, he was still a shell of his former self.

What made things more difficult is that he was haunted by visions and nightmares from his past: The abuse of women. The killing of innocents. Looting corpses. But most importantly: Water. Just the sight of a lake or a great downpour was enough to shut himself down completely and shiver in a random cellar, fearing that a great tidal wave would once again ruin him and his surroundings.

7th Umbral Era – 7 and onwards – Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

As the village got poorer and poorer, Zala'to was called upon to be more and more creative with the resources at their disposal. At this point he had become a respected member of the village and thus his responsibilities grew becoming a teacher of sorts. Even though it appears he was good with children, teaching them basic swordman skills, the village always remained wary of his ‘ticks’.

One day however, a new guest visited the village: A Miqo’te Conjurer by the name of Kisha Taluun of Sharlayan who came to the village looking for her father who turned out to be one of the local troubadours. However, Kisha was smitten with Zala'to’s appearance. It wasn’t soon after that they declared their love for each other. They were wed in secret by the local innkeeper's daughter.

Till this day, even though Kisha is often required to venture forth into the world, she returns to the Golden Bazaar every week for at least several days at a time to visit Zala'to. Together they work on making the village a better place and work on their own joined future together.